News.com has a new design. I noticed the folder tabs across the top. Seems like that look is gaining more momentum. People understand folders and tabs. I found out however that the new look has big adds in the middle of the page. Very distracting. but that’s how they make their money.
From cluetrain manifesto - “…the human voice is unmistakably genuine. It can’t be faked. Most corporations, on the other hand, only know how to talk in the soothing, humorless monotone of the mission statement, marketing brochure, and your-call-is-important-to-us busy signal. Same old tone, same old lies.” I don’t want to build websites for those kinds of companies. I had a customer who wanted to have a marketing brochure and a mission statement. I tried to build a great site for them but they kept coming back to me that it wasn’t it for them. They wanted Flashy home page with ‘professional look’ . They wanted to look good, like some realy big company. After 3 months I realize we did not speak the same language. I did not live in their world of ‘looking good’ corporation. I did not want to live in their world. Their world does not interest me. We parted company. I lost money on the project. I feel freed up.
I want to build sites like these guys at 37signals I really like this passage from their manifesto. It’s number 1 on their list “The people who visit web sites aren’t “users,” click-throughs, hits, numbers on a spreadsheet, or some other form of dehumanizing jargon. They’re your husband, your mom, your friend, the guy who sits in the cube next to you. They’re real PEOPLE, just like you and me.”. Number one is building a site for human beings. Everything else is secondary.
Just finished writing frontfoot web design manifesto It’s been in my head in different forms for the last couple of years. Last year I lost all my design files when my hard drive crashed and since then I didn’t have any time to work on frontfoot site. This is going great for me. I have a lot to contribute. The idea of contet and context has been in my mind since attending a course on human beings and the possibility. I have heard the phrase that “context is decisive” and another phrase that “language creates reality”. Wow, what an incredible way to see the world. Since then I was very interested in interface design and web came along and it’s going to be great
…getting tired it’s 2:33am
Nightmare of Ecommerce. Awesome Flash presentation. Try clicking on any button. You will be surprised. You need sound for this too to fully appreciate this work of art.
Let’s try again. This is the third post. Looks ok. Need to incorporate it to home page now.
This is the second post from blogger to my site. Still tweaking the styles used for display